"Charlemagne’s elephant" Topic

"Several months after Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the west (no big deal) the great man was again on the move, touring the Italian north in the spring of 801. While in Pavia, "he was told that legates from Aaron Amir al Muminin,1. the rex of the Persians, had arrived at the port of Pisa."2.
This was news indeed. As Charlemagne's vision had expanded past the European scene, as a good Christian his attention had naturally turned to Jerusalem and the holy lands of Palestine. At some point the sad state of Christian communities to the east had been made known to him, and he had decided to remedy this unacceptable state of affairs. But as those lands were not under his rule and obviously outside the reach of his armies, he would need to use the softer skills of politics and charm to work his will. In those days that meant the dispatch and reception of personal envoys.

Jerusalem had come under the rule of the Islamic Umayyad dynasty around 638 CE. The Umayyads ruled until 750 until overthrown by the Abbasids.3. When Charlemagne's gaze touched upon the Navel of the World, it was Harun al-Rashid who ruled Palestine from Baghdad. In 797 Charlemagne dispatched an envoy who passed through Jerusalem on his way to Baghdad. Two years later, as Charlemagne summered in Aachen, "a certain monk arrived from Jerusalem, bringing blessing from the patriarch and relics from the place of the Lord's resurrection which he had sent to the king. And the king celebrated the Lord's birthday while residing in the same palace; and when he gave the monk, who wished to return home, leave to depart, he ordered a certain priest from his palace to go with him, Zacharias, to whom he also entrusted certain gifts, to be delivered to those reverend places."…"

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